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CWD: East Berlin disease check station takes shape

By HEATHER FAULHEFER

The Evening Sun

Posted:
10/18/2012 08:40:28 PM EDT

State employees work to clear space for additional trailers at a new chronic wasting disease check station adjacent to the Game Commission maintenance building on State Game Land 249, 1070 Lake Meade Road in East Berlin. (THE EVENING SUN -- CLARE BECKER)

The tools that rested on a table outside of a Pennsylvania Game Commission maintenance building were a little different this week.

There were scalpels and knives, plastic gloves and a box of vials waiting to be filled with the brain stems and lymph nodes of harvested deer.

And the beeping of PennDOT trucks blended with the rumble of stones being dumped on upturned ground.

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They are the sights and sounds of a work in progress - a new check station being created to test harvested wild deer for chronic wasting disease now that the state has confirmed its first case of the disease found in a pen-raised deer that last lived in Adams County.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission and PennDOT are working together to create the check station area adjacent to the Game Commission maintenance building on State Game Land 249, 1070 Lake Meade Road in East Berlin. The Game Commission recently obtained an occupancy permit from PennDOT to create the area, which is expected to be ready next week.

Wildlife conservation officers and wildlife biologists working at the check station said on Thursday that they've been pleased with how quickly the operation is coming together.

"Everyone's cooperating, because we all know how important this is," said Wildlife Conservation Officer Barry Leonard, who is a Land Management Group Supervisor for the Game Commission.

On Thursday, PennDOT trucks were plowing the upturned ground of a formerly wooded area and using stone filling to create a new area for the check station. The area will feature more parking for hunters and an access entrance and exit off of Lake Meade Road.

Wildlife biologist Justin Vreeland, background, and biologist aide Brandon Black, both of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, discuss a map of the area while working at the Game Commission s check station for chronic wasting disease testing. The biologists expect the number of hunters stopping by the check station to increase once it changes from a voluntary measure during archery season to a requirement for hunters within the Disease Management Area during the regular firearms season. (THE EVENING SUN -- CLARE BECKER)

The check station is expected to have a 53-foot refrigerated trailer to store the "high-risk" parts and remains from the harvested deer and one or two dumpsters to transfer material to be incinerated or put in a landfill.

"Our hope is that all of the material will be incinerated," said Justin Vreeland, a wildlife biologist and a Regional Wildlife Management Supervisor for the Game Commission.

The wildlife biologists will also have two biology trucks set up to conduct the testing and store equipment.

Thursday was the first day that hunters could voluntarily bring harvested deer to be tested at the check station, located at the Game Commission maintenance building on State Game Land 249, 1070 Lake Meade Road in East Berlin.

And as expected, the first day was slow when it came to testing, with one harvested deer tested in the morning and some visitors stopping by to ask the Game Commission what was now expected of hunters within the roughly 600-square-mile Disease Management Area set by the state. The area includes much of York County and Adams County.

And when hunters in those counties take part in the two-week firearms season following Thanksgiving, the activity at the check station is expected to pick up, officials said.

Once the firearms season starts, it will be mandatory for hunters to bring their harvested deer to the check station for chronic wasting disease testing, according to an executive order from Carl Roe, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

"We don't want hunters to change their behavior as they harvest animals," Vreeland stressed as he and biologist aide Brandon Black continued to prepare their trucks and tables. "We want people to continue to enjoy the sport of hunting."

And with cooperation, Vreeland said, the hunters can help the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the state Department of Agriculture confirm with greater certainty that chronic wasting disease has not yet impacted the wild deer population.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission estimates that there are 30 deer per square mile in the roughly 600-square-mile Disease Management Area - or about 18,000 deer.

Based on past harvest figures, it's estimated that a total of about 1,500 deer will be harvested in the DMA during all the months of the hunting season, Vreeland said.

If all of the hunters who harvest a deer in the DMA during the two-week firearm season comply with the check station testing, it's estimated that a maximum of 900 to 1,000 deer could be tested, Vreeland said.

That's with 100-percent compliance, which is probably not realistic, Vreeland acknowledged, but it is the hope.

"We have really no idea what to expect," he added.

What hunters can expect when they bring their harvested deer to the check station is a brief interview with the Game Commission followed by the extraction of tissue samples from their deer.

In the interview, the Game Commission will determine where the deer came from, including its municipality and county, and will ask for information on the deer, like its sex and age.

By making an incision across the deer's throat, biologists will extract tissue samples, including the animal's brain stem and lymph nodes, Vreeland said.

Then each deer will be given an identification number and tagged using the same red plastic tags in the state's Red Tag Program. The tagging will indicate to deer processors that the deer has already been tested for CWD, Vreeland said.

The check station will also serve as a location to drop off high-risk parts of a deer harvested in the DMA after the deer is processed, he added. The Game Commission wants to ensure that all high-risk parts of each deer in DMA stay within the DMA, as the executive order requires, and it wants to make sure the parts are disposed of in a proper and safe manner.

Wildlife biologist Justin Vreeland holds a deer lymph node that was extracted on Thursday from a deer brought to the Pennsylvania Game Commission s new check station at 1070 Lake Meade Road in East Berlin. The testing for chronic wasting disease requires a tissue sample taken from a deer s brain stem and lymph nodes, which are removed by biologists at the check station. (THE EVENING SUN -- CLARE BECKER)